Feature Films

HBO's Taking Chance

February 8, 2009

The HBO movie, Taking Chance , will be shown on the pay cable giant for the first time on Saturday, February 21. It promises to be a first-rate, moving film. The movie, starring Kevin Bacon…

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Sam Bottoms, 1955-2008

January 5, 2009

Sam Bottoms, the actor best know for his role as Lance the Surfer in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now , died on December 16 at his home in Los Angeles. The 53-year-old who got his…

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Frost/Nixon on Stage & On Film

November 9, 2008

The latest production of Frost/Nixon, the play written by Peter Morgan about the 1977 TV interviews between Brit journalist David Frost and the recently resigned U.S. President, opens November 11 and runs until November 30…

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Haldeman's 'Forever War' to be Ridley Scott Sci-Fi Pic

October 21, 2008

Joe Haldeman's The Forever War is one of the most honored science-fiction novels of the 1970s. That Vietnam-War-influenced book (Haldeman served with the Fourth Engineers and was severely wounded in Vietnam in 1968), which deals…

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Vietnam, Bowling, Rules: The new Big Lebowski DVD

September 17, 2008

Ten years ago I was bowled over by the Coen Brothers' crazy dark comedy The Big Lebowski , which since then has become a pop cultural icon, complete with fan websites and an annual Lebowski…

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Ben Stiller Meets Oliver Stone

August 18, 2008

  Stiller and Robert Downey, Jr. filming Tropic Thunder   Ben Stiller, who co-wrote, directed, and stars in Tropic Thunder , the hilarious send up of self-important, self-aggrandizing, and self-deceiving Hollywood types, and one of his…

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Peter Rollins on Hollywood and the Military

August 15, 2008

Peter C. Rollins , who recently retired as an English prof at Oklahoma State University, where he is Regents Professor Emeritus, has long specialized in film studies. Rollins,  a U.S. Marine Vietnam War veteran who holds a PhD from…

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Tropic Thunder: Over Over-the-Top, But Funny

August 13, 2008

Brandon T. Jackson, Ben Stiller, and Robert Downey, Jr. in the hilarious Tropic Thunder In the car last night on the way to the movie theater to see Tropic Thunder , I heard a segment…

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Hanoi Hilton on DVD?

June 13, 2008

The Hanoi Hilton came out in 1987, which someone called "The Year of the Vietnam War film." That's because after Hollywood produced little or nothing in the way of movies set in Vietnam during the…

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Get Ready for Tropic Thunder

May 15, 2008

Are you ready for another Vietnam War comedy? Ready or not, here comes Tropic Thunder , a big Hollywood film from Dreamworks Pictures. The movie stars Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. as…

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